Charter Schools Exploit Children of Color | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter Schools Exploit Children of Color | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter Schools Exploit Children of Color

Go to most impoverished black neighborhoods and you’re bound to find three things in abundance.

Liquor stores, payday lenders and charter schools.

It is no accident.

In the inner city, the underemployed compete for a shortage of minimum wage jobs, healthcare is minimal, public transportation inadequate and the schools are underfunded and short staffed.

But that doesn’t mean money isn’t being made.

In capitalist America, we make sure to turn a profit off of everything – including our peculiar institutions of racial inequality.

Businesses are on every corner, but they aren’t set up for CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools Exploit Children of Color | gadflyonthewallblog

2019 Medley #23 | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #23 | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #23

Let the Children Play,
Reading: Too much too soon,
The Common Good,
Is the Teacher Pay-gap Gender-related?
Vouchers hurt students in Ohio

HEALTHIER KIDS NEED PLAY, PLAY, AND MORE PLAY

FreshEd with Will Brehm: Let the Children Play (Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle)

Earlier this year I reviewed a book by Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle titled Let the Children Play. On December 2, the authors were interviewed by Will Brehm on his excellent podcast, FreshEd.

The authors’ emphasis during their interview, and the emphasis in their book, is that play is much more important than most Americans realize, and most American children, especially children who live in poverty, don’t have enough time in their day to play. Some excerpts from the podcast…

DOYLE: Play is a fundamental engine of learning for children and if you CONTINUE READING: 2019 Medley #23 | Live Long and Prosper

Rochester teachers rally against ‘Christmas massacre’ layoff plan | WBFO

Rochester teachers rally against ‘Christmas massacre’ layoff plan | WBFO

Rochester teachers rally against ‘Christmas massacre’ layoff plan

CREDIT GINO FANELLI / CITY NEWSPAPER

The chants of “Let teachers teach” and “Education is a right, that’s why we have to fight,” echoed clearly down West Broad Street early Thursday evening. They came from a rally organized by the Rochester Teachers Association and were meant to send a message: Stop the proposed layoffs of Rochester School District teachers.

The teachers union organized the rally in response to Superintendent Terry Dade’s plan to lay off 218 district staff members, 152 of whom belong to the union. The Board of Education will vote on the cuts on Thursday, Dec. 19.

Standing outside of the district’s offices just before Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the school board, RTA President Adam Urbanski grimly referred to the proposal as a “Christmas massacre.”

“We have an alternative proposal for the Board of Education we’re advancing today -- don’t act until you can figure out how we got into this mess,” Urbanski said. “The teachers and students didn’t cause this problem, they shouldn’t be punished.”

Urbanski urged the board to delay voting on Dade's plan until June, a move that CONTINUE READING: Rochester teachers rally against ‘Christmas massacre’ layoff plan | WBFO

Unexpected side effect of Texas school finance overhaul has Dallas schools nixing controversial charter partnership

Unexpected side effect of Texas school finance overhaul has Dallas schools nixing controversial charter partnership

Unexpected side effect of Texas school finance overhaul has Dallas schools nixing controversial charter partnership
Fort Worth ISD, however, plans to continue its charter partnership

One of the most politically heated battles the Dallas school board has undertaken in recent years was the decision to transform some classrooms into charters.

Parents and teachers crowded meetings for months urging the board to not “privatize” any part of DISD by handing control over to outsiders. Trustees argued amongst themselves late into the evening — and well into the early morning hours — before finally agreeing earlier this year to create partnerships that allow private operators to run some DISD prekindergarten classes as charters.

But now, DISD is hitting reverse. Administrators told trustees on Thursday that the district needed to scrap the plan altogether because the district will receive dramatically less money from the state than projected.

Trustee Joyce Foreman, the only sitting board member to oppose the partnerships, said the unexpected was exactly why she didn’t want DISD to participate.

“I’ve been a person who has cautioned this board about moving too fast — and the administration — on things before we have the full understanding,” Foreman said. She added, “Yes, I’m gonna crow. Take your time. Slow your roll.”

This summer trustees gave final approval to convert some DISD pre-K classes already offered at 10 preschools outside the district into charter partnerships.

The district was taking advantage of a 2017 law, SB 1882, aimed at encouraging traditional districts to partner with charters, which are public schools that are generally run by independent operators. Districts using the law would receive about $1,800 more per student in 1882 partnerships, which was CONTINUE READING: Unexpected side effect of Texas school finance overhaul has Dallas schools nixing controversial charter partnership

New Bill Aims to End the "School to Confinement Pathway"

New Bill Aims to End the "School to Confinement Pathway"

NEW LEGISLATION AIMS TO END THE “SCHOOL TO CONFINEMENT PATHWAY”

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY of Massachusetts introduced new legislation Thursday aimed at ending the “school to confinement pathway.” The bill targets discriminatory and punitive school discipline policies that push black and brown students out of schools at disproportionately high rates, often directly into the criminal justice system.

The bill offers incentives to states and schools that commit to ban most suspensions and expulsions, as well as corporal punishment and the physical restraint of students. It also allots resources to the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights at a time when the Trump administration has worked to gut it, and establishes an interagency task force to end school pushout policies and examine their impact on girls of color, who are disproportionately penalized by current disciplinary policies. The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and endorsed by more than a dozen community organizations, is the first to follow Pressley’s People’s Justice Guarantee, a comprehensive resolution introduced last month that maps how the federal government can tackle the injustices of the criminal legal system through a sweeping set of policies.

Schools have often served as young people’s first point of contact with the criminal justice system, and many students have seen their education CONTINUE READING: New Bill Aims to End the "School to Confinement Pathway"

McKinsey’s Biggest Mistake | Diane Ravitch's blog

McKinsey’s Biggest Mistake | Diane Ravitch's blog

McKinsey’s Biggest Mistake

When I worked in the first Bush Administration In 1991-92, McKinsey consultants were everywhere. Gaggles of very young, well-dressed people marched in and out of the White House with briefcases and plans. McKinsey has advised school districts, given them business plans to fix their problems. Does anyone ever check up on how their proposals turned out? Do they ever admit failure? I never figured out what they were doing or why they were there. Like Pearson, McKinsey is always there, although there is no evidence that they are education experts. What seems to mark the McKinsey brand is a sense of certainty that they know everything and know how to fix everything. To learn more about the corporate consultants who advise on how to do everything, I recommend this book, The Lords of Strategy. Education has been warped for the past 30 years by the inappropriate application of corporate strategy to schools and classrooms and children.

Their biggest disaster was their role in South Africa, where they received a huge payment to fix the state- CONTINUE READING: McKinsey’s Biggest Mistake | Diane Ravitch's blog

McKinsey Designed Trump’s Immigration Policy | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-omp via @dianeravitch

Will Bunch: McKinsey, the “Slimeball” Consultants | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-osg via @dianeravitch

Legislators under fund the pension systems again plus they thought we would be dead by now. – Fred Klonsky

Legislators under fund the pension systems again plus they thought we would be dead by now. – Fred Klonsky

LEGISLATORS UNDER FUND THE PENSION SYSTEMS AGAIN PLUS THEY THOUGHT WE WOULD BE DEAD BY NOW

The pension programs for Illinois employees, state university workers, judges, legislators and educators outside Chicago fell $3.8 billion further in debt.

According to a report from the state legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability:

The unfunded liability grew to $137.3 billion during FY 2019, largely due to the continued actuarially insufficient State contributions and lower-than-expected investment returns. Actuarial gains from SERS members who elected to participate in the pension buyout plans and net actuarial gains reported by two systems, SERS and GARS, helped offset the cumulative actuarial loss of the five Systems combined.

The debt is about $500 million more than the commission estimated in April.

Illinois legislators have routinely ignored the funding targets.

While I support the constitutional change to a fair tax system, based on their past CONTINUE READING: Legislators under fund the pension systems again plus they thought we would be dead by now. – Fred Klonsky

Should we worry that American children are growing less creative? - The Washington Post

Should we worry that American children are growing less creative? - The Washington Post

Should we worry that American children are becoming less creative?

In 2012, early child education expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige wrote the following on this blog:

We have many decades of theory and research in child development that tell us so much about how young children learn. We know that, like children all over the world and throughout time, children need to play. We know that learning in the early years is active — that kids learn through direct play and hands-on experiences with people, with materials, and in nature.

Kids need first-hand engagement — they need to manipulate objects physically, engage all their senses, and move and interact with the 3-dimensional world. This is what maximizes their learning and brain development. A lot of the time children spend with screens takes time away from the activities we know they need for optimal growth. We know that children today are playing less than kids played in the past.

Seven years later, the problem is at least as acute, and that’s what Erika Christakis looks at in this post.

Christakis is an early childhood educator and author of the New York Times best-selling book, “The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need From Grown-ups.” A former preschool director and faculty member of the Yale Child Study Center, she holds teaching licensure (K-2nd grade) in Massachusetts and Vermont and serves on the national advisory board of Defending the Early Years (DEY), a nonprofit organization working to provide quality education to all young children. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, the Atlantic, Salon, and TIME.com, among other media.

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert

By Erika Christakis

My newly adopted 9-year-old son is a Minecraft aficionado; however, unlike most of the millions of CONTINUE READING: Should we worry that American children are growing less creative? - The Washington Post

Eli Broad's Superintendent Academy Goes Ivy League | Capital & Main

Eli Broad's Superintendent Academy Goes Ivy League | Capital & Main

Eli Broad’s Superintendent Academy Goes Ivy League
The billionaire’s controversial training program has found a new home at Yale University.

Say goodbye to the Broad Academy. The Eli Broad-founded and funded superintendent’s program that since 2002 has trained “aspiring urban school system leaders” in the blunt art of disrupting communities, undermining school boards and alienating teachers through top-down district privatization techniques is pulling up its L.A. stakes and leaving California. Its destination? The Yale School of Management, which this week welcomed BA’s Broad Center umbrella org and the $100 million jackpot from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation that comes with it. The ivy-covered facelift will transform BA’s market-based ed reform fellowship — which Diane Ravitch notes has been unencumbered by either education academicians or scholars — into a now establishment-countenanced, one-year master’s degree in education management. Also on tap will be “advanced executive training” for laissez faire-leaning district superintendents and CFOs.

“Broadies,” as graduates are known, have left their mark on Golden State public schools. Oakland Unified is still digging itself out of the mess left by three politically appointed grads that managed the district during its 2003-2009 state receivership. Ten years later, their legacy CONTINUE READING: Eli Broad's Superintendent Academy Goes Ivy League | Capital & Main

CURMUDGUCATION: Next Saturday: Dem Education Forum in Pittsburgh (Yes, I'll Be There)

CURMUDGUCATION: Next Saturday: Dem Education Forum in Pittsburgh (Yes, I'll Be There)

Next Saturday: Dem Education Forum in Pittsburgh (Yes, I'll Be There)

Next Saturday, December 14, some assortment of Democratic Presidential hopefuls will offer their two cents about education. The crowd will be an invitation-only group of about a thousand public education stakeholders, including yours truly. The Network for Public Education kindly gave me the chance to attend this event, and I am looking forward to it.

If you are not among the thousand invitees, you can still catch the evens as they unfold on several  streaming options. NBC News Now, MSNBC.com and NBC News Learn are all supposed to be carrying it, with MSNBC doing some coverage of it throughout their programming.

You can also head to this page for a look. If nothing else, I'm sure many of us will be tweeting along madly throughout the day (find me at @palan57).

Right now most of the big names are expected (though not, as of the moment, Booker or Bloomberg). Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Harris had expected to attend but then, well...).

Do I think amazing, momentous things are going to happen? I do not--any candidate who cant get his message locked and loaded for this particular crowd has to be exceptionally dense. The format CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Next Saturday: Dem Education Forum in Pittsburgh (Yes, I'll Be There)

Thomas Armstrong: What If Einstein Ran Our Schools? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Thomas Armstrong: What If Einstein Ran Our Schools? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Thomas Armstrong: What If Einstein Ran Our Schools?

Thomas Armstrong recently wrote a provocative book with the same title as this essay. I invited him to write a post for this blog, and he did. His point of view stands in sharp contrast to the current policy environment of testing, data, competition, and punishment for teachers, principals, students, and schools that don’t hit test score benchmarks.

He writes:

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (the ‘’nation’s report card’’), recently released reading and math test scores for fourth- and sixth-graders and the results have been less than stellar. Showing declines in reading and little progress in math, these results are bound to stimulate calls for new education reforms.  However, we should keep in mind the historical context in U.S. efforts to raise achievement levels in our schools.  This campaign for school reform dates as far back as CONTINUE READING: Thomas Armstrong: What If Einstein Ran Our Schools? | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: What Would You Ask the Presidential Candidates?

NYC Educator: What Would You Ask the Presidential Candidates?

What Would You Ask the Presidential Candidates?

A week or two ago, I got an email from AFT. They were seeking people to go to Pittsburgh this coming weekend to see and hopefully participate in the presidential education forum. It asked me," IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO TELL THE NEXT PRESIDENT ONE THING ABOUT WHY YOU’RE PUBLIC SCHOOL PROUD OR WHAT YOU SEE IN YOUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY THAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? "

I had to click on a link and respond, so I don't actually have a record of my answer. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with working behind the most overcrowded school in New York City in a miserable trailer that's hot around summer and cold around winter. I may have asked about how exactly a candidate would support and encourage union, not only for teachers, but for all Americans.

A few days ago, I was notified that I was one of 25 applicants who AFT was sending to Pittsburgh. AFT will be training me in organization and social media Friday, and I'll be able to attend the forum on Saturday. I will try to ask a question of at least one of the candidates. I've got just a few things on my mind.

It weighs heavily in my memory that candidate Barack Obama said he'd pass card check so as to encourage and enable union. To the best of my recollection, he never even tried. I also recall him saying he'd find comfortable shoes and march with labor, and that he never set foot in Wisconsin as collective bargaining was stripped from teachers. I recall candidate Obama saying something to NEA on the lines of, "I'll do it with CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: What Would You Ask the Presidential Candidates?

The Common Core Standards Died a Natural Death. Why Is Dana Goldstein Trying to Dig Them Up? | janresseger

The Common Core Standards Died a Natural Death. Why Is Dana Goldstein Trying to Dig Them Up? | janresseger

The Common Core Standards Died a Natural Death. Why Is Dana Goldstein Trying to Dig Them Up?

In a superficial article last Friday, NY Times education reporter Dana Goldstein exhumed an education reform that has, mercifully, already been buried: the Common Core State Standards.  The Common Core has pretty much faded out of the public consciousness, but now that Goldstein has chosen to examine the corpse, I wish she had done a careful job.

Goldstein explains that the Common Core Standards were created by “a bipartisan group of governors, education experts and philanthropists” and that, “The education secretary at the time, Arne Duncan, declared himself ‘ecstatic.'” Now, ten years after the experiment was launched, many of the over forty-five states that tried the Common Core have dropped it. They have recalibrated their curricula and dropped from their annual testing regime the standardized tests that were paired with the Common Core Standards, tests created by one of two test-development consortia: the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (the PARCC test) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (the SBAC test).

In her article last Friday, Goldstein wonders whether recent U.S. test scores on the international PISA test and our own National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) would be better if the Common Core were brought back: “The disappointing results have prompted many in the education world to take stock of the Common Core, one of the most ambitious education reform projects in American history. Some see the effort as a failure, CONTINUE READING: The Common Core Standards Died a Natural Death. Why Is Dana Goldstein Trying to Dig Them Up? | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: Kristen Bell, Celebrity Charity, Flaming Possums

CURMUDGUCATION: Kristen Bell, Celebrity Charity, Flaming Possums

Kristen Bell, Celebrity Charity, Flaming Possums

Sigh.

I was already thinking about this, about how Dana Goldstein's Common Core retrospective for the New York Times collapsed a lot of history, but still had room for that time that pre-disgraced Louis CK made a crack about Common Core math. A great reminder of how a gazillion teachers and parents can comment on the quality of the Core, but a celebrity makes a comment and suddenly people listen.

Well, here comes another one of those feel good stories that doesn't make me feel so good. Kristen Bell, actress, star, celebrity, has started doing a little crowd-sourcing charity for classroom teachers. She's been at this for a while--every Friday on Instagram she posts the story of some heart-warming teacher somewhere and the good work that teacher has been doing and the wish list that teacher has for her classroom. Bell's followers then flood that teacher with supplies forn the classroom.

Yes, it's nice that a celebrity is raising the profile of classroom teachers across the country. Yes, it's nice that the appreciation takes the tangible form of supplies a teacher can use. But it brings us back to the old flaming dead possum problem, which I'll illustrate with this conversation:

Employee: Boss! Boss! Come here. I want to talk to you. I have a huge problem. Somebody put a big CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Kristen Bell, Celebrity Charity, Flaming Possums

Whatever Happened to “No Excuses” Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to “No Excuses” Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to “No Excuses” Schools?

Nothing. They are still around in big cities. What has changed is the rhetoric of reform. Where once the phrase “No Excuses” was plastered on car bumpers. It was a popular label that one wing of urban school reformers used with pride, but now it has fallen out of favor. Although the sticker has been stripped from the bumper, “No Excuses” schools remain.

The substance of these mostly charter network schools–curriculum, instruction, organization, and governance– continues largely as they have been (e.g., Knowledge Is Power Program–KIPP–Uncommon Schools, YES Prep). As “policy talk” goes–the rhetoric of reform–charter school spokespeople avoid “no excuses” as much as they would in talking about their undergarments.

In two decades, the phrase has gone from a proud label charter school advocates used to fierce rejection by many of the same boosters. Listen to Eva Moskowitz, founder of Success Academies in New York City in a 2017 interview:

“We’re not a no-excuses school. We’re just not. I don’t really know how to respond to that nomenclature…. That doesn’t mean you don’t believe that high levels of learning can occur in chaos,and we do believe that students do need to say please and thank you to the lunch ladies. We do assign school uniforms to CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened to “No Excuses” Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice